saw a very strange car on the freeway tonight (917???)

[jkeyzer]

So I was out in the 914 tonight. I was driving back home on I-5 south near Camp Pendleton, about midnight.

I saw a strange looking yellow car up ahead with a short and rectangular rear end, but high off the ground. It looked exotic. I thought it was a Ferrari or Lambo at first.

I pulled up closer and noticed a PORSCHE in black script the side under the driver's "door". Still had no idea what it was but started to get very interested. It did not look like it belonged on the street but it did have decent ground clearance.

I pulled up along side and openly stared from the next lane over. I had to slow down quite a bit and he must have been doing under 65. The driver noticed my car and we stared at each other for a minute.

He stomped on the gas and zipped forward a couple car lengths, then let off again, shooting big yellow flames out the exhaust. Now I could see the huge turbo and exhaust this thing had. It was unreal. The flames died down to a dim blue for a few seconds and went out.

I pulled up to him again and gave him a big thumbs up, then pulled away and continued driving home still trying to figure out what just happened.


It looked a lot like this:
Imagine it in yellow with black script.



The turbo was big and the exhaust came off the side of the turbo and bent back, one large pipe.

Maybe a replica?

It definitely wasn't a 914.

[Mark Henry]

My bet is a kit car.

The 'Laser 917' was a 917 looking kit, or the 'Manta Mirage' was a Can-am looker, as well as many others were built in the '70's and early 80's that fit on a VW beetle pan.
Was it rear engine? A bug engine with a turbo?

It's just a sheep in wolf's clothing.

The flame thrower crap is easy to do, but it is oh-so rice.

[Biggy72]

I think this might have been what you were talkin bout. Look to the left in this pic http://thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/index.mv?photo+200306191824156826 They come up on thesamba.com every once in awhile but I've never seen one actually put together.

[douglas robbins]

I agree with mark henry. I had to be a kit car for many reasons:

1. The 917 was never street legal and never sold to the retail public.

2. Anyone who owned a real 917 could never get it insured for street use and thus would never risk driving it on the road, uninsured.

3. Flaming tailpipes is either a trick done with propane or indicative of really bad timing, neither of which would likely to be occuring on a real 917.

Douglas

[sammyg2]

There is a 917 kit car but they don't look much like the real thing. the original is really, really small. If you were driving a 914 and a 917 went by you would have to look down to see it.
I'm not sure of the exact height but I would say they are less that 34" tall.
First time i saw one up close I realized that even if I had a chance there is no way in heck I could ever drive one, I'm just too big for them.

[JmuRiz]

Sammy,

If I'm not mistaken, the real 917 was some 38 inches tall...which is about 10 shorter than the stock 914. Talk about a recliner of a drivers seat

Nathan

PS: it could have been one of these...Project 917

[jkeyzer]

The windows and rooflines were at similar heights as my car. When I looked over at him the other driver and I were basically sitting level with each other.

Biggy72 - the front end did not look like the one in your picture. There were much more radical curves in the front fenders and windshield.

JmuRiz - It did look similar to the Project 917 cars but I believe the taillights were in the rear "bumper" and it had the huge turbo hanging down right below.

It might have had rollup windows also and other things that don't exist in the real 917s either. It was hard to tell in the dark.

[red-beard]

A real UFO!!!



Just remember, before there was rice, there were VW's

James

[mike95125]

Could it have been a lotus? Sean_V8_914 has a kit car in his back yard that sounds like what you discribed as well.

[mike95125]

Maybe its a ferrari wanna be
like this

[Rouser]

Probably saw something like this:



Next to the Cobra, it's the most prolific VW-based Porsche 917 knock-off out there.

[M. Hendrix]

There actually are a couple 917 that are licensed for the street, one is for sale in Europe, and someone in Texas had one, maybe more???

What you saw was a kit car.




M

[soloracer]

Originally posted by douglas robbins

3. Flaming tailpipes is either a trick done with propane or indicative of really bad timing, neither of which would likely to be occuring on a real 917.

Douglas

Not every car that shoots flames is a ricer. In fact I'm willing to bet that a real 917 shoots some wonderful flames. If I am not mistaken it is quite common for turbocharged high performance cars to shoot flames - usually between shifts. Follow the logic....driver is on the throttle and turbo is pushing air into the intake manifold. Driver lifts throttle to shift, thus closing the throttle plates. Air hits throttle plates and heads back towards turbo - eventually going out the blow off valve. Fuel however is still delivered as the air was metered somewhere between the turbo and intake manifold. Since the air is not there to fully combust the fuel it gets pushed out the exhaust. If the exhaust is hot enough the remaining fuel will ignite and VOILA! you have flames out the tailpipe.

[jkeyzer]

Rouser - that was almost certainly it.

A VW huh? It sure fooled me.

[Mark Henry]

Originally posted by jkeyzer
Rouser - that was almost certainly it.

A VW huh? It sure fooled me.

That's the "Laser 917".

[Biggy72]

you guys realize many old street rods had flame throwers too. All you had to do was run it rich and put a spark plug at the end of the tail pipe that was on a switch. After goosing the throttle and letting off quickly it'd burn pretty good.

[Goldfinger '72]

Here's one from Ebay (past)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=7251&item=2422383457

[jkeyzer]

You know, I am pretty sure it was that exact car.

The ebay listing is for San Diego (Fallbrook actually) and how many of those could be still on the road here?

[Zeke]

I don't know if a 917 could do 65 MPH for very long. I wouldn't with me in it.

[kellzey]

The Lazer is one of the ugliest abominations of a kit car I have ever seen. Looks like it was smushed down in the middle or something.

It is NOTHING like the smooth sleek lines of the real 917!